Tornado Werewolf Endgame Druid Build for Diablo 4 (Season 1)

Build Introduction

This is your comprehensive guide for building a Tornado wielding Werewolf with a hide made of steel, able to stand against any enemy and dominate. Welcome to the Wolf-Nado build. This unique build is focused on a unleashing powerful Tornadoes non-stop, while you stack fortified life and immunity to any crowd control lockdowns. This tanky beast takes advantage of huge amounts of Vulnerable Damage and stacked Critical Strikes, offering endgame enemies a ride back to hell in a devastating tornado.

Our guide will cover all basic mechanics and deep dive into the optimal setup for skills, paragon and gear for the build. Further down below you will find a supporting YouTube video as well to showcase the build in action.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

This build has a single Unique requirement and several Legendary Aspects that need to be acquired before it will function properly. As for the Legendary Aspects, you will need the following at a minimum to make the build work at its most basic level. These Aspects are all non-codex, which means you will need to find them on a Legendary Item then imprint them onto specific gear.

Required Uniques

Tempest Roar

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Stormchaser’s Aspect

Dire Wolf’s Aspect

Aspect of the Dark Howl

Mighty Storm’s Aspect

To even begin this build, we recommend you have these five Aspects ready for imprinting at a minimum. For the build it become fully functional, we recommend you have all the Legendary Aspects listed further in this guide for the build to work optimally.

Season of the Malignant

Season 1 Patch Updates

Below is a list of specific changes from the Season 1 Patch Update that affect this build. If any of these changes create significant issues within the build, they will be discussed in more detail under their relevant sections.

• Fixed an issue where seeking Tornados produced by Stormchaser’s Aspect would not deal damage.
• Storm strike Damage Reduction reduced from 25% to 15%.
• Spirit Glyph’s bonus now affects all damage instead of just Core Skills.
• Aspect of Disobedience maximum stacks reduced from 100 to 60, reducing maximum Bonus Armor % from 25-50% to 15-30%.
• Prime Grizzly Rage now grants Unstoppable for 6 seconds instead of while active.
• Masochistic now also requires a Lucky Hit chance of 75%.
• Cooldown Reduction: Reduced by ~30% on gear slots.
• Significant reductions to Vulnerable and Critical Strike Damage values (needs to be tested more).

Patch 1.1.1

The second major update for Season 1, Patch 1.1.1 released on August 8th 2023, brings some positive changes to Basic Generator Skills for Druids. The changes that directly affect this build are listed below.

• Storm Strike – Spirit gain increased from 14 to 15.

None of these changes are build-breaking and we still have full confidence in this build.

Malignant Hearts

The theme for Season 1 introduces a new form of legendary gem called Malignant Hearts. There are three types of hearts that need to be socketed into matching colored sockets on all equipped jewelry and one type of heart that can be placed into any socket. For more information about the Malignant Hearts theme for Season 1 check out our Malignant Hearts guide.

Listed below are the Malignant Hearts that are useful for this build, ranked by importance. Stats displayed reflect what a level 20 character would receive as a drop. Note that this list is based on our early opinions on the Malignant Hearts, and we will update it as and when it is necessary.

1. Caged Heart of Tempting Fate
2. Caged Heart of Inexorable Force
3. Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact

Video Guide

Please note that since this written build guide is ever-evolving and videos cannot easily be updated, the below video should serve as more of a guideline, whereas the written guide will always have the most accurate information.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Skill Bar Setup for the Tornado Werewolf Build (Order does not matter)

Tornado Storm Strike Debilitating Roar Grizzly Rage Blood Howl Cyclone Armor

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58 point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Priority Skills	Cluster
Storm Strike Level 1, Enhanced Storm Striker,	Basic Skill
Tornado Level 5, Enhanced Tornado, Primal Tornado, Predatory Instinct Level 3, Heart of the Wild Level 1, Wild Impulses Level 3, Digitigrade Gait Level 3	Core Skill
Cyclone Armor Level 1, Enhanced Cyclone Armor, Preserving Cyclone Armor, Blood Howl Level 1, Enhanced Blood Howl, Preserving Blood Howl, Debilitating Roar Level 5, Enhanced Debilitating Roar, Preserving Debilitating Roar, Ancestral Fortitude Level 1, Vigilance Level 3	Defensive Skill
Nature’s Reach Level 3	Companion Skill
Elemental Exposure Level 3, Neurotoxin Level 1, Envenom Level 3, Toxic Claws Level 1	Wrath Skill
Grizzly Rage, Prime Grizzly Rage, Supreme Grizzly Rage, Resonance Level 3, Defiance Level 3, Circle of Life Level 1	Ultimate Skill
Earthen Might	Key Passives

Boons – The Druid Specialization

Boons are additional buffs provided to the Druid class as part of their specialization. To unlock your Boons, you will need to complete a simple quest on the west side of the map in the stronghold of “Tur Dulra”. This becomes available at Level 15 and should be completed as soon as possible. The Boon mechanic allows you to pick a single buff from each of the corresponding master animals and the addition of a second Boon buff from a chosen master animal you select.

Once you are in the endgame and have completed the skill tree from the previous section, utilize the following set of Boons for the best results.

Staying in Grizzly Rage as much as possible is critical to not only our survival, but also our damage. Two the boons listed above are going to directly support our Ultimate Skill durations and Cooldown. First, we use the boon Calamity to help extend our Grizzly Rage by 25%. Next, the boon Calm Before the Storm going to constantly tick down our Grizzly Rage’s Cooldown. As you progress past Level 50 Nightmare Dungeons, you will benefit massively from the Fortify per second, increased Movement Speed, and being Unstoppable. These three buffs are critical to staying mobile and out of Elite’s special attacks, as well as bosses area of effect attacks.

Paragon

We recommend using these Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version.

Rare Node	Effect
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[9.6]% increased damage to Close targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% Damage Reduction against Close enemies.
Werewolf	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +[6.24]% increased damage while in Werewolf form. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% damage reduction while in Werewolf form.
Lust for Carnage	– Critical Strikes with Werewolf Skills restore 2 Spirit.
Undaunted	– For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal +[9.6]% increased damage while Fortified. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Intelligence points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain up to 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have.
Earth and Sky	– Grants +[150]% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Radius Bonus: Nature Magic Skills deal x10% increased damage to Crowd Controlled or Vulnerable enemies.
Thunderstruck	– Storm Skills deal x30% increased Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable or Immobilized enemies.
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[3.85]% increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Dealing damage to a Vulnerable enemy increases your damage by x1% for 6 seconds, up to x10%.
Spirit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[10.4]% increased Critical Strike Damage. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Critical Strikes increase the damage an enemy takes from you by x2% for 20 seconds, up to x12%.

Let’s break down each of these beneficial Nodes and where our Paragon Points are positioned in each of the Paragon Boards we use. This part of the build is presented in order of importance, so if you do not have enough Paragon Points for use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.

Starting Board

1. Begin with by selecting the nodes on the left hand side of the board towards the Rare Node Tenacity.
2. Collect all the Magic Nodes surrounding Tenacity except the Life node which we skip. This will give us a raw damage boost and Life increase.
3. Now, continue towards the Glyph location in the center of the starting Board.
4. Focus on selecting as many Dexterity nodes in the surrounding area highlighted by inserting the Territorial. The Territorial Glyph will be a source of increased damage and a 10% Damage Reduction for Close Enemies.
5. Select both Rare Nodes inside the Glyph radius, Impel and Resolve. For Resolve, select the magic nodes that offer us a Dexterity bonus for in Critical Strike Chance. For Impel, pass straight up as shown in the image above.
6. Finally, head towards the top of the Paragon Board and attach the Inner Beast Board in the same position as you see in the image below.

Inner Beast (2nd Board)

1. Head towards the Glyph slot and insert the Glyph Werewolf , remember to take all the Willpower nodes needed for the bonus.
2. Take the two Rare Nodes in the Glyph’s radius, Shapeshifter and Determination, these will increase both our Damage and our Armor.
3. Now take the pathway up the right hand side of the board and pick up the two Rare Nodes, Tenacity and Havoc, taking the magic nodes shown above. These Nodes will boost our Damage, Maximum Life and Armor.
4. Complete the pathway to the connection points on both the top and right hand side of the board. We will be using these connection points later.
5. Lastly, follow the pathway to the connection point at the left hand side of the board, picking up the Rare Node Nimble as you pass by it. This will increase our Attack Speed and Damage.
6. Now attach the next Paragon Board Lust for Carnage to the left hand connection point.

Lust For Carnage (3rd Board)

1. Head towards the open Glyph slot and take a small detour down to pick up the Rare Node Wild’s Call.
2. Now head to the Glyph slot and insert Undaunted. This Rare Glyph amplifies our Damage while Fortified based upon the Intelligence Nodes in the radius.
3. Take the Regenerative Rare Node along your path to the Glyph slot.
4. Now go down and pick up the Legendary node Lust for Carnage. This a major component to keeping your Spirit up and being able to spam Tornado.
5. Head towards to the Ferocity Rare Node, this will boost our Critical Strike Damage and Werewolf Damage.
6. Go to the bottom of the paragon board and attach our next board: Thunderstruck.

Thunderstruck (4th Board)

1. Path towards the Glyph slot and insert Earth and Sky. This glyph will buff the two nearly by Rare Nodes we will select, Stormcaller and Hubris. We will also receive the bonus benefit of increased Nature skill damage to Vulnerable enemies.
2. Follow the image above and select all the Magic Nodes around each of the two Rare Nodes. This will increase our Storm skill damage and provide us with Damage Reduction from Vulnerable enemies.
3. Now follow the pathway down to the Rare Node Deluge. This will once again increase our damage output.
4. Select all the surrounding Magic Nodes and then proceed to the Legendary Node Thunderstruck. This will increase our Critical Strike Damage.
5. Now drop to the right hand bottom corner of the board and pick up the Rare Node Tempest as well as the surrounding Magic Nodes to increase our Critical Strike Damage once again.
6. Now return to the previous board, Inner Beast and head to the right hand side of the board. This time attach our fourth board, Survival Instincts.

Survival Instincts (5th Board)

1. This is a shorter board, path towards the Rare Node Bulwark. This will increase our Damage Reduction while Fortified and give us a small bonus to Fortification Generation.
2. Now head back to the Inner Beast board and take the upper connection point and add the paragon board Heightened Malice.

Heightened Malice (6th Board)

1. Head to the open Glyph slot and insert Exploit. Take all the Dexterity nodes shown above for the bonus Damage to Vulnerable Enemies.
2. Now take the two Rare Nodes Nature-born and Sinking Fangs, with their corresponding Magic Nodes. These two nodes amplify our damage towards poisoned enemies as well as our defenses against them.
3. Finally, head back to the left hand side of the board and and attach our final board, Constricting Tendrils.

Constricting Tendrils (7th Board)

1. Head towards the open Glyph slot and insert the Spirit Glyph. This will increase our Critical Strike Damage. Be sure to take the needed Dexterity points for the bonus as well.
2. Now take the Rare Node Courage for the increase to Maximum Life.
3. This completes the paragon tree for this build.

Paragon board images courtesy of d4builds.gg, to view the build click here.

Mechanics and Playstyle

The playstyle for the Wolf Nado build is very similar to some of our previous builds. We start by building up our Spirit using our generator Storm Strike, the fun part to this build is its ability to self-sustain your Spirit pool. Once your Spirit is topped off activate your Grizzly Rage, which will trigger Vigilance and begin building up our fortified life. Additionally, your movement speed will be increase and your Spirit costs will be drastically reduced. Start spamming your core skill: Tornado. As your Tornadoes slow everything around you and your Grizzly Rage amplifies your Critical Strike Damage with kills, your damage will quickly ramp. Be smart with your movement and avoid elite attacks.

If things get too crazy, drop your Debilitating Roar on the enemies around you for the increase in Damage Reduction and target the harder enemies by dumping Tornado skill right on top of them. If you need a top of with Life, hit your Blood Howl and the bonus increase to Attack speed. The last added component to finish your rotation is to start looping in your Storm Strike attacks for the additional 25% Damage Reduction and chance to immobilize enemies. Now pop your Cyclone Armor for even more tankiness and keep pumping out those Tornadoes.

One final note, with this build you have several layers of defenses to keep your Damage Reduction at a high level so you can tank enemies while you dump Tornadoes into their faces, all the while getting a bonus chunk of Life from the Dire Wolf’s Aspect with every Critical Strike.

Now that you understand the skill rotation and benefits, let’s look at some of the additional benefits our skills provide while using certain Legendary Aspects.  

Debilitating Roar and Blood Howl

Both Debilitating Roar and Blood Howl benefit from using the Vigilance passive in our skill tree. This passive offers us 15% damage reduction whenever we cast either of these skills. Your best strategy is to balance the use of both skills for the 6 seconds of damage reduction at rank 3. Keeping the Vigilance buff active during endgame activities will be essential to you staying alive.

Grizzly Rage

This skill is paramount to the build; you cannot push endgame content with an effective setup to use with your Grizzly Rage. To create an effective setup for endgame, we will equip two specific Legendary Aspects: Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast, Dire Wolf’s Aspect and a possible third, Balanced Aspect, as an alternative to support our Spirit generation.

First, Dire Wolf’s Aspect alters the werebear only skill to be performed as a Werewolf, offering Movement Speed instead of Damage Reduction as well as a huge amount of Spirit Cost Reduction. This reduction is one of the main keys to us being able to spam Tornado.

Next, Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast focuses on not only extending the uptime for our Grizzly Rage to be active, but also builds up a staggering amount of Critical Strike Damage with each critical strike you make. By using this Aspect and focusing on Critical Strike Chance on our gear, we can effectively boost our Critical Strike Damage by over 500% – 1000%. This adds a huge damage boost for running endgame content.

Our alternative choice, which is not used in this current build setup, is Balanced Aspect. This Aspect increases our maximum Spirit and helps us with a 20% bonuses to Spirit generation which supports not only skills, but also Spirit on kill effects and any Lucky Strike effects that generate Spirit. To help keep us topped off with maximum Spirit.

Overall, the build’s playstyle is simple to follow: build up your Spirit to maximum and pop Grizzly Rage, then start the non-stop Tornado spam. Use your defensive skills to keep yourself standing strong and pop Blood Howl for more Spirit to keep the pressure up. All of these Spirit skills will work together with our Boons to keep our Grizzly Rage Cooldown at a minimum, and keep us generating Spirit. Don’t forget to be using your Debilitating Roar and Cyclone Armor for the bonus Damage Reduction.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority

As you begin to farm in World Tier 3 and 4, Rare and Legendary item drops will begin to appear with some regularity depending on your luck. We recommend saving the targeted Legendary items that have the needed Legendary aspects listed below. We also recommended to keep multiple copies of the build’s Aspects in your Stash for future upgrades.

As for the Rare items, you will need to inspect each one for targeted affixes for use in each specific slot and do your best to match the recommended rolls. We have listed our targeted affixes in order of importance. Check the chart below and make note of what affixes you are searching for when you see a Rare gear piece drop.

Gear Slot	Targeted Affixes
Helm	Tempest Roar
Chest	1. Damage Reduction 2. Damage Reduction while Fortified 3. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies 4. Rank Up Cyclone Armor 5. Maximum Life
Gloves	1. Rank up Tornado 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. Critical Strike Damage with Werewolf Skills 5.  Lucky Hit: Chance to Restore [X]% Primary Resource
Pants	1. Damage Reduction 2. Damage Reduction while Fortified 3. Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies 4. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies  5. Maximum Life
Boots	1. Movement speed  2. Spirit Cost Reduction 3. Damage Reduction while Injured 4. Willpower 5. All Stats
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Rank Up Envenom 3. Spirit Cost Reduction 4. Damage Reduction while Injured 5. Ranks Of All Defensive Skills
Rings	1. Vulnerable Enemies 2. Resource Generation 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. Critical Strike Damage 5. Critical Strike Damage with Werewolf Form
Totem	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Spirit Cost Reduction 4. Resource Generation 5. Willpower
1-Handed Weapon	1. Vulnerable Damage 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Willpower 4. Damage to Close Enemies 5. Core Skill Damage 6. Physical Damage

Please note that these Affixes are the recommended picks for the blank, but that is simply our opinion. Other Affixes could certainly work instead of the ones listed above, but may not be optimal. Also, there are several very specific affixes that are required to make the build work, particularly around Spirit generation, they are as follows:

• Cooldown Reduction
• Resource Generation
• Spirit Cost Reduction

Please note the recent Season One Balance changes have lowered the amount of Cooldown Reduction found on gear by 30%. This may cause Grizzly Rage Cooldowns to be longer, we plan to revisit this once Season One begins.

A final point on acquiring the right Affixes and Legendary Aspects, use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded from many different activities in the game, you will always stockpiling them until you hit your maximum. Instead of just randomly spending them on a random pick, use them to target what you might be missing from this build. It is a great way to target a specific slot of loot and find what you need.

If you are interested in checking out a new tool for gambling Obols check out this link below from Icy Veins.

Legendary Aspects

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Tornado Werewolf Druid build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary items and imprint them onto better Rare items with preferred stats. The endgame itemization goal will be to imprint Aspects with the best values Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or as close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each Aspect in the slot it was posted with.

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect	Legendary Aspect Power
Helm	Tempest Roar
Chest	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds.
Gloves	Mighty Storm’s Aspect	The Earthen Might Key Passive also applies to your Storm Skills.
Pants	Vigorous Aspect	Gain [10.0-15.0%] Damage Reduction while Shapeshifted into a Werewolf.
Boots	Aspect of the Dark Howl	Debilitating Roar is now a Werewolf Skill. In addition, Debilitating Roar will Immobilze Poisoned enemies for [2-4] seconds.
Amulets(50% bonus)	Dire Wolf’s Aspect	Grizzly Rage now Shapeshifts you into a Dire Werewolf. As a Dire Werewolf you gain [15-25%] Movement Speed instead of Damage Reduction and [30-50%] Spirit cost reduction bonus. In addition, kills Heal you for 10% of your Maximum Life.
Ring	Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast	The duration of Grizzly Rage is increased by [1-5] seconds. In addition, Critical Strikes while Grizzly Rage is active increase your Critical Strike Damage by 10% for the duration.
Ring	Nighthowler’s Aspect	Blood Howl increases Critical Strike Chance by [5.0-10.0%]. In addition, Blood Howl also affects Nearby Companions and Players for 3 seconds.
1-handed Weapon	Stormchaser’s Aspect	Tornado will seek up to [1-3] targets.
Totem	Aspect of Retaliation	Your Core Skills deal up to [20-40%] increased damage based on your amount of Fortify.

Unique Items

This can use multiple different Uniques to enhance the strength and gameplay of the build. However, one Unique is absolutely mandatory: Tempest Roar.

Gems

Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.

• Weapon: Royal Emerald for critical strike damage to Vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Royal Sapphire for damage reduction while Fortified.
• Jewelry: Exclusively using our Malignant Hearts for these slots.

Elixirs and Health Pots

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Use an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed.

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

Changelog

• August 8th 2023: Added notes about Patch 1.1.1 and link for paragon.
• August 6th 2023: Full build review and improvements in paragon tree and Affixes.
• August 4th 2023: Malignant Hearts and Paragon updated for clarity.
• July 19th, 2023: Season of the Malignant section added.
• July 18th, 2023: Reviewed and altered build with Season One Patch Notes.